Movie Review: Maatr Doles Out Stepmotherly Treatment To Raveena Tandon And The Audience
Raveena Tandon deserved a better comeback film to showcase her acting prowess. What could have been a taut edge-of-the-seat thriller, Maatr is more of a lost opportunity for debutante director Ashtar Sayed
Few minutes into Maatr and the impression is loud and clear – producer Anjum Rizvi must have whispered into the ears of the director that let Maatr be our second Wednesday. The only hitch is, Maatr is no Wednesday. The revenge saga is convoluted, least convincing and there are liberties galore.
The film deals with the tragic story of Raveena Tandon aka Vidya Chauhan who is gang-raped along with her daughter while on her way back home from annual school function event. The only thing that looks authentic in this plot is the setting – yes, no city could have played the part better than New Delhi. The film adopts a southward trajectory soon after the gruesome act as Raveena goes haywire and plots ‘skillful’ murder of all the seven Delhi ke bigde hue ladke.
Image Source: youtube/t-series
Picture this, Raveena is in the hospital and the Inspector comes to take her statement and there she is informed that her daughter is no more, is a very powerful scene by itself and it requires the caliber of a skilled actor to show his or her mettle and pull it off. But Raveena in this scene is a dampener. The expression of shock and pathos comes and goes but never stays which largely dilutes the impact, which truly is the turning point of the film.
Soon after there is another scene but this time the director hits the bull’s eye. Fresh from the trauma when Raveena is all set to go somewhere and is waiting for the elevator, the sight of three men standing in the elevator, scares her off. Thereafter it’s all about lazy writing and a rush to reach the climax.
Raveena in a very tactful manner picks all the seven ‘bigde hue kids’ and plots their assassination. The operative word in the last sentence is ‘tactful’ which has completely been ignored. The director in an attempt to make a fast paced plot has compromised on every front. How she plots the executions, how she emerges unscathed every time, how a perfect housewife and a teacher deceives the police every time, are questions that have not been answered, and please don’t forget there are few more ‘hows’ too.
Image Source: youtube/t-series
Raveena could have opted for a better comeback vehicle as her skill set has largely been ignored in this film, which looks shoddy because of poor production quality. Maatr is Ashtar Sayed’s debut directorial venture and it’s a missed opportunity for him as the film could have been a taut pacy thriller. And few words for Madhur Mittal whose work in Slumdog Millionaire was noticed by all and sundry. Madhur plays the role of a minister’s wild son and through Maatr he has successfully brought back a term which we haven’t heard for a long time – ham acting. In a quest to perform ‘method acting’, the outcome is more of ham acting which after a point becomes unbearable There is an anagram for Maatr which aptly describes the films and that’s ‘Trama’. Now ‘Trama’ sounds very close to ‘Trauma’.
Thumbnail Image Source: twitter/maatrthemovie
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